The University of Birmingham launched a course to assist teachers in understanding how the youth’s mental health is affected by social media.
The course titled “Optimizing Social Media for Youth Health and Wellbeing” is meant for trainee, secondary, and primary teachers, especially those possessing health, personal-social, and ICT/computer science education.
Teachers’ expertise enhanced
According to Dr. Victoria Goodyear, the leader of the online course, social media has emerged to be a fundamental part of modern society.
Nevertheless, it has also become vulnerable to young people based on various reasons, such as addiction because of continuous usage.
Goodyear stipulates that adults, especially teachers, ought to take the mandate of enhancing their capabilities in these technological advancements. This will be instrumental in boosting the proficiency of young persons.
Teachers instrumental in mental health education
Goodyear affirmed that many young people usually spend at least twenty (20) hours weekly on online platforms.
The course is also engaging because the welcoming page on the website reveals that it is meant to reach out to young people and make them understand the uniqueness of their generation, as well as give support.
Teachers’ knowledge base will be considerably expanded because the online course will show them how social media can be utilized as a learning tool.
As a result, they will have the proficiency to craft a social media curriculum to be availed at the year-end in a book.
Teachers’ social media awareness is an issue that is continuously being highlighted. For example, a recent opinion indicated that teachers ought to have Twitter accounts. Notably, social media is usually used as an information avenue. For instance, Amazon rainforest recently fired up social media.
